Chris Buescher came from 26th to score an unlikely win in Sunday’s Cook Out 400 at the Richmond (VA) Raceway to stamp his name into the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. The RFK Racing driver didn’t steal the win though as he was up to second by the end of the second stage. The 30-year-old driver capitalized when his boss and teammate Brad Keselowski pit at the wrong angle on his Lap 284 stop and when he inherited the lead, he’d not look back in leading 88 of the final 95 laps of the race to score his third career win.
“Yeah, that was smooth sailing there trying to take care of the Fastenal Mustang,” a jubilated Buescher said on the front stretch in front of the Richmond crowd. “These guys over at RFK, the 17 team, gave me a great hot rod. It was so good. Just trying to take care of it there.
“Scott (Graves) came over the radio, That’s working perfect, keep it up, caution. Yeah, that’s about right (smiling). I knew even on our green flag stuff we were so strong during the race, I had a good feeling about it there.
“Pretty awesome to pull it off. Proud of everybody. That was a long way from the back this morning. Heck of a race for us.”
Buescher led three times for 88 laps and held off Denny Hamlin on the final restart to give Ford just their third trip to victory lane on the year.
Buescher was cruising to an easy win before the third and final caution of the day flew for an incident between Noah Gragson and Daniel Suarez in Turn 4 on Lap 390.
It bunched the field back up and sent the lead lap cars down pit road for the final time. Buescher exited with the lead and had Hamlin lining up behind him on the ensuing restart.
The Texas native was reminded of the move Hamlin did to Kyle Larson last week in Pocono. That contributed to a great launch for which his No. 17 Ford sailed out to a big enough advantage to beat Hamlin by .549-seconds to the win.
“We’ve had this one circled since last fall,” he said. “I was really hopeful this could be the one that would turn the page for us. Sure enough, right off the truck I thought it was.
“I hate that qualifying went the way it did. I was sitting there beating myself up trying to figure out what we were going to do there. Made it to Victory Lane here in Richmond. I’d have told you to flood this place three years ago. My opinions are changing quite a bit here (smiling).
“What a day, though. That’s awesome.
“I mean, so much has happened in 15 years I’ve been there. But the last two years, last 18 months, just to see the turnaround, new car kind of being a good reset for us, to be able to be competing for wins.
“A lot of different size racetracks, a couple checkered flags now, some great pit strategy there, great pit stops. It’s every department working hard to make this happen and get us this checkered flag.
“We’ve been talking about this a lot. Don’t get to ask me about points any more (smiling).”
The runner-up was the fifth on the .75-mile track for Hamlin including three of which occurring in the last six tries. He’s finished 5th, 3rd, 12th, 2nd, 2nd, 1st, 4th, 20th and now 2nd since 2019.
Kyle Busch started second and finished third in his No. 8 Chevrolet for his 19th career top five finish here while Joey Logano and Ryan Preece rounded out the top five.
23XI Racing went 1-2 in Stage 1 and 3-4 in Stage 2 but both cars finished outside the top 10 on Sunday.
Tyler Reddick had never led a lap at Richmond before but then went out and led all 70 laps in Stage 1. He’d finish 3rd in Stage 2 but had a commitment line violation on his final stop dropping him to 16th in the end. That’s where he finished this past spring as he still has never had a top 10 finish in 7 Richmond Cup starts.
Wallace was 2nd in Stage 1 and 4th in Stage 2 and led two times for 80 laps. He had 1 lap led ever here and 58 laps led all season entering. But a slow stop in the second stage dropped him from the lead to 4th on Lap 174. He’d finished 12th.
SHR Shows Up
What a race it was for the SHR camp in having all 4 drivers finish in the top 11. That to me wasn’t as a shock as it was to others.
Ryan Preece led the way with a 5th place result in his No. 41 Ford. Aric Almirola was 8th in his No. 10 Ford while Kevin Harvick was 10th. Chase Briscoe was the lone driver outside the top 10 in 11th.
If not for a slower stop in the second stage, Harvick likely finishes higher up. He was 5th at the end of the first stage but 12th in Stage 2.
Almirola came from 24th to finish 8th in Stage 1 but a commitment line violation on his 1st stop in the second stage too dropped him back. He’d rebound to finish 13th in that stage and then in the top 10 in the end.
Preece won the pole at Martinsville, was 12th in Phoenix, 18th here, 17th in Dover and the only reason he didn’t finish better than 15th in Martinsville was an issue on pit road cost him track position. That’s why I expected a strong result out of him.
Briscoe won Phoenix last spring, was fourth there last November and seventh this spring. SHR seems to be at their best on short tracks this season with Briscoe being seventh (Phoenix), 12th (Richmond), fifth (Martinsville), 30th (Dover) and 10th at Loudon respectively. NASCAR has Briscoe ranked third (114 points) for most points accumulated on short tracks this season too.
Phoenix was dismal for Almirola in 33rd, but he was also 13th here and sixth at Martinsville too.
Harvick was runner-up and fifth respectively in the last two spring races here and won last summer for his ninth Top-8 result in his last 10 Richmond tries. So 10th was one of his worst finishes since 2018 here. He also has 20 consecutive Top-10 finishes at Phoenix too including what should have been a win this spring and that track is the most similar to Richmond. Harvick entered having scored two straight fourth place finishes on the season too.
Hendrick Motorsports Struggles
HMS didn’t used to be threats here in Richmond in general. Prior to the spring race dominance, they had just one win here since 2009 (27 starts) and even that lone victory, was on a late race pit strategy and not with the quickest car.
Then came 1-2-8-24 results this spring including them leading a combined 228 of 400 laps (57%). That’s what makes Sunday’s race puzzling for them. They never were factors.
Their top finisher was Chase Elliott in 13th. Alex Bowman and Kyle Larson came home 18th and 19th respectively. William Byron was a lap down in 21st.
If not for that late race caution, none of them would have likely been on the lead lap. At the end of the second stage, just Elliott was on the lead lap. They’d finish 14-18-19-20 in that stage.
Which is right about where they finished too.
Elliott did gain 16 points on the playoff cutline, but he hasn’t had a finish better than 10th over the last month. Bowman is -42 now and hasn’t had a top 10 finish since the spring race here (12 tries without one).
Byron has one top five in his last 8 starts with finishes of 13th, 1st, 24th, 14th, 21st over the last month himself.
Larson has finished 36th, 3rd, 20th, 19th now too.
Can they turn it around?
Off Day For Playoff Bubble
Sunday was a good day for those solidly above the cutline. Chris Buescher entered the day +111 so his win wasn’t as shocking as it seems. Kevin Harvick gained 19 points in going from +163 to +182. He scored 6 stage points and finished 10th.
Brad Keselowski gained 29 points with 12 stage points including a stage win. He went from +122 to +151. Bubba Wallace scored 16 stage points and moves from +27 to +54.
All are good.
The rest?
Not so much.
Michael McDowell gained 1 point in going from +17 to +18 but he only finished 22nd. AJ Allmendinger went from -17 in 18th to -22 in 18th. He crossed the finish line in 27th.
Daniel Suarez had a miserable day in a 33rd place effort. He went from -23 to -34.
Three drivers did gain though but are still behind.
Ty Gibbs scored 3 stage points and finished 15th. That gained him 10 points on the cut line in going from -28 in 19th to -18 in 17th.
Chase Elliott finished 13th with 7 stage points. He went from -56 to -40 now.
Alex Bowman went from -46 to -42 but falls to 21st. He finished 18th.
Austin Cindric finished 26th and went from -60 to -64.
We now have 4 races left in the regular season with Michigan, Indianapolis, Watkins Glen and Daytona. With 2 road courses and a superspeedway left, it will make Harvick, Keselowski and Wallace uneasy still.
Say McDowell and Allmendinger win in this stretch, that pushes Wallace out. If Bowman or Elliott find a way to win, then Keselowski could just as easily be out too.
Championship 4 Preview
Loudon two weeks ago and Richmond on Sunday have typically led to Championship 4 previews.
- All 4 drivers who’ve made the Championship 4 from 2018, 2019 and 2020 had all finished in the top 10 in Loudon. In 2021, it was 2 of 4. That’s partially because Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. were collected in that opening lap crash in the rain. Last year, it was 3 of the 4 all in the top 8 (1st – Bell, 2nd – Elliott, 6th – Chastain, 24th – Logano).
- In 2020, Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano and Chase Elliott combined to lead 285 of the 301 laps. They finished 1-2-4-9.
- In 2019, Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch combined to lead 272 of the 301 laps. They finished 1-2-6-8.
- In 2018, Harvick, Busch, Truex Jr. and Joey Logano combined to lead 131 of 301 laps. They finished 1-2-4-9.
Richmond has similar trends. 3 of the 4 Championship 4 drivers were in the top 6 last Fall. All 4 of them the year prior were in the top 6 in the 2021 Fall race and half were in the top five in the 2021 spring race. In 2020, 3 of the 4 were in the top five in the Fall race (only race of 2020 at Richmond). For 2019, they went 1-2-3-7 in the Fall race and 1-4-5-8 in the spring. In 2018, they went 1-2-3-14 in the Fall race and 1-4-5-14 in the spring. This past spring, the Championship 4 from last year went 3-4-7. Chase Elliott missed the race, but his car went P2.
Over the last few weeks, some standouts have come from these two races. Martin Truex Jr. led 254 of 301 laps in Loudon. He was 7th on Sunday in Richmond. On like tracks this season, Truex was (17th Phoenix in the spring), 11th (Richmond spring), 3rd (Martinsville), 1st (Dover) and 5th (Gateway).
Joey Logano was 2nd in Loudon and now 4th at Richmond. The defending series champion was 11th in Phoenix, 7th in Richmond this spring, 2nd in Martinsville, 31st in Dover and 3rd in Gateway.
Kevin Harvick was 10th here on Sunday but 4th in Loudon. He was 5th (Phoenix), 5th (Richmond), 20th (Martinsville), 19th (Dover) and 10th (St. Louis).
Denny Hamlin was 7th in Loudon and now 2nd in Richmond. He led 71 laps but had a speeding penalty here this spring, was fourth in Martinsville and 5th in Dover and 2nd in Gateway.
Brad Keselowski was 5th at Loudon and 6th on Sunday. He was 10th here this past spring too.
Kyle Larson struggled on Sunday but won here this spring. He was also third in Loudon. He dominated Phoenix this spring but finished fourth. He also won at Martinsville too, was caught up in a crash while having a fast race car in Dover and fourth in Gateway.
Would you be shocked if this was your Championship 4? There’s 6 drivers there and 4 of them could easily make it.
Clean Weekend
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series saw all 36 starters finish the race on Saturday night. A day later, all 36 Cup starters saw the checkered flag too in a largely clean race. 2 of the 3 cautions on Sunday were for stage breaks with the lone incident coming via a spin with 10 to go between 2 drivers.
379 of the 400 laps (94.7%) of the race was run under green flag condition.
Race Review Online 